Hostname: page-component-77c78cf97d-5vn5w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-23T17:46:59.502Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agricultural Rhythms and Rituals: Ancient Maya Solar Observation in Hinterland Blue Creek, Northwestern Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gregory Zaro  and
Jon C. Lohse
Gregory Zaro
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 (gzaro@unm.edu)
Jon C. Lohse
Affiliation:
Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, PRC, Building 5, Austin, TX 78712 (jlohse@mail.utexas.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Agriculture in prehispanic Mesoamerica necessitated not only a wide range of knowledge regarding soil types, fertility, and the growing cycles of different plants, but also the attendant rituals that firmly situated agrarian production into a shared Mesoamerican worldview. Due primarily to archaeological visibility, those attendant rituals have traditionally been investigated within the context of large centers. Recent investigations at the site of Quincunx, a hinterland architectural complex in northwestern Belize of the Maya Lowlands, provide evidence that some rural communities may also have had access to and control over esoteric knowledge involved in agricultural practice in the Late Classic period. Our findings are discussed in the context of ethnographic accounts and archaeological data that reveal the deep significance of quincuncial designs in Maya society and Mesoamerican ritual practices.

La agricultura en Mesoamérica prehispánica no necesitaba solamente el conocimiento de los tipos de suelo, la fertilidad, y los ciclos de crecimiento, sino también los rituales acompañados que establecieron la producción agrícola en una cosmovisión común entre los mesoamericanos. Principalmente por su visibilidad en el registro arqueológico, las investigaciones sobre esos rituales se han restringuido a los centros más grandes de los mayas. Investigaciones recientes del sitio de Quincunx, un complejo arquitectónico en el campo del noroeste de Belice, presentan evidencia que algunas comunidades rurales pudieran tener acceso y control sobre el conocimiento esotérico con respecto a la agricultura durante el período Clásico Tardío. Parece que era importante en varios niveles la ubicación y configuración única del complejo de Quincunx a los poblados circundantes. Su plano arquitectónico de cinco estructuras con énfasis en intercardinalidad imita las concepciones del cosmos que existen entre muchas comunidades actuales e históricas de los mayas. Se discuten nuestras conclusiones dentro del contexto de cuentos etnográficos y datos arqueológicos que revelan el significado profundo de los diseños quincunciales en la sociedad maya.

Information

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 81 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Adams, Richard E. W. 1999 Rio Azul: An Ancient Maya City. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy 1981 Some Issues of Method and Theory in Lowland Maya Settlement Archaeology. In Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns, edited by Wendy Ashmore, pp. 37–69. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy 1991 Site-Planning Principles and Concepts of Directionality among the Ancient Maya. Latin American Antiquity 2:199–226.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy, and Sabloff, Jeremy A. 2002 Spatial Orders in Civic Plans. Latin American Antiquity 13:201–215.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 1981 Tropical Archaeoastronomy. Science 213(4504):161–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 2001 Skywatchers. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Calnek, Edward E., and Hartung, Horst 1988 Myth, Environment, and the Orientation of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. American Antiquity 53:287–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Dowd, Anne S., and Vining, Benjamin 2003 Maya Calendar Reform? Evidence from Orientations of Specialized Architectural Assemblages. Latin American Antiquity 14:159–178.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Gibbs, Sharon L., and Hartung, Horst 1975 The Caracol Tower at Chichén Itzá: An Ancient Astronomical Observatory? Science 188(4192):977–985.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aveni, Anthony F., and Hartung, Horst 1986 Maya City Planning and the Calendar. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 76, Part 7. The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., and Hartung, Horst 1988 Archaeoastronomy and the Dynastic History at Tikal. In New Directions in American Archaeoastronomy, edited by Anthony Aveni, pp. 1–16. BAR International Series 454. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., and Linsley, Robert M. 1972 Mound J, Monte Albán: Possible Astronomical Orientation. American Antiquity 37:528–530.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria B. 1983 Directional Glyphs in Maya Inscriptions and Codices. American Antiquity 48:347–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Closs, Michael P. 1988 A Phonetic Version of the Maya Glyph for North. American Antiquity 53:386–393.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1975 Native American Astronomy in Mesoamerica. In Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America, edited by Anthony F. Aveni, pp. 3–31. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Coggins, Clemency 1980 The Shape of Time: Some Political Implications of a Four-Part Figure. American Antiquity 45:727–739.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A., Reese-Taylor, Kathryn, and Mora-Marín, David 2002 The Origins of Maya Civilization: The Old Shell Game, Commodity, Treasure, and Kingship. In Ancient Maya Political Economies, edited by Marilyn A. Masson and David A. Freidel, pp. 41–86. AltaMira Press, New York.Google Scholar
Freidel, David, Scheie, Linda, and Parker, Joy 1993 Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. Quill William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Garber, James F., Brown, M. Kathryn, and Hartman, Christopher J. 2002 The Early/Middle Formative Kanocha Phase (1200–850 B.C.) at Blackman Eddy, Belize. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/00090/index.html, accessed May 2, 2003.Google Scholar
Guiteras Holmes, Calixta 1961 Perils of the Soul: The World View of a Tzotzil Indian. Free Press of Glencoe, New York.Google Scholar
Hanks, William F. 1990 Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space Among the Maya. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Holland, William 1964 Conceptos cosmológicos tzotziles como una base para interpretar la civilización maya prehispánica. América Indígena 24:11–28.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 1996 The Archaeology of Site Planning: An Example from the Maya Site of Dos Hombres, Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Iwaniszewski, Stanisław 1994 Archaeology and Archaeoastronomy of Mount Tlatloc, Mexico: A Reconsideration. Latin American Antiquity 5:158–176.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 2000 The Founding of Monte Alban: Sacred Propositions and Social Practices. In Agency in Archaeology, edited by Marcia Anne-Dobres and John Robb, pp. 71–91. Routledge Press, London.Google Scholar
Lohse, Jon C. 2002 Commoner Ritual, Commoner Ideology: Alternate Views of Social Complexity in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1993 Ancient Maya Political Organization. In Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D.: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff and John S. Henderson, pp. 111–183. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1999 Men’s and Women’s Ritual in Formative Oaxaca. In Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, edited by David C. Grove and Rosemary A. Joyce, pp. 67–96. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Marquina, Ignacio 1951 Arquitectura prehispánica. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Mathews, Jennifer P., and Garber, James F. 2004 Models of Cosmic Order: The Physical Expression of Sacred Space among the Ancient Maya. Ancient Mesoamerica, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 1999 Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Monaghan, John 1990 Sacrifice, Death, and the Origins of Agriculture in the Codex Vienna. American Antiquity 55:559–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peeler, Damon E., and Winter, Marcus 1995 Building J at Monte Albán: A Correction and Reassessment of the Astronomical Hypothesis. Latin American Antiquity 6:362–369.Google Scholar
Robin, Cynthia 2002 Outside of Houses: the Practices of Everyday Life at Chan Nòohol, Belize. Journal of Social Archeology 2:245–268.Google Scholar
Ruppert, Karl 1940 A Special Assemblage of Maya Structures. In The Maya and Their Neighbors, edited by Clarence L. Hay, Ralph L. Linton, Samuel K. Lothrop, Harry L. Shapiro, and George C. Valliant, pp. 222–231. D-Appleton Century Company, Inc. New York.Google Scholar
Scarborough, Vernon L. 1998 Ecology and Ritual: Water Management and the Maya. Latin American Antiquity 9:135–159.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Freidel, David 1990 A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. Quill, William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 1994 The Ancient Maya. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Smith, A. Ledyard 1982 Major Architecture and Caches. In Excavations at Seibal, Department of Petén, Guatemala, Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 15, No. 1. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sprajc, Ivan 1995 El Satunsat de Oxkintok y la Estructura 1-sub de Dzibilchaltún: unos apuntes arqueoastronómicos. In Memorias del Segundo Congreso Internacional de Mayistas, Vol. 1:585–600. Universidad Nacional Autonomade Mexico.Google Scholar
Sprajc, Ivan 2000 Astronomical Alignments at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 11:403–415.Google Scholar
Sprajc, Ivan 2001 Orientaciones astronómicas en la arquitectura prehispánica del centra de México. Serie Arqueología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico D.F. Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 1993 Worldview Materialized at Teotihuacán, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 4:103–129.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Barbara 1992 Time and the Highland Maya. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, Gair, Wolf, Marc, Estrada-Belli, Francisco, and Hammond, Norman 2000 Discovery of Two Predicted Ancient Maya Sites in Belize. Antiquity 74:481–482.Google Scholar
Trigger, Bruce G. 1991 Monumental Architecture: A Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behaviour. World Archaeology 22:119–132.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969 Zinacantan: A Maya Community in the Highlands of Chiapas. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1993 Tortillas for the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals. New edition. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1997 Zinacanteco Astronomy. Mexicon 19(6):110–116.Google Scholar
Wagner, Elizabeth 2000 Maya Creation Myths and Cosmography. In Maya: Divine Kings of the Rainforest, edited by Nikolai Grube, pp. 281–293. Könemann, Cologne.Google Scholar
Webster, David 2002 The Fall of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar